Modern automobiles and other vehicles commonly include sophisticated on-board computer systems that monitor the status and performance of various components of the vehicle (e.g., engine, transmission, brakes, suspension, etc.). Many of these computer systems also adjust or control one or more operating parameters of the vehicle in response to operator instructions, road or weather conditions, operating status of the vehicle, and/or other factors.
Various types of microcontroller or microprocessor-based controllers found on many conventional vehicles include supervisory control modules (SCMs), engine control modules (ECMs), controllers for various vehicle components (e.g., anti-lock brakes, electronically-controlled transmissions, etc.), and/or the like. Such controllers are typically implemented with any type of microprocessor, microcontroller or other control device that appropriately receives data from one or more sensors or other sources, processes the data to create suitable output signals, and provides the output signals to control actuators, dashboard indicators and/or other data responders as appropriate. The various components of a vehicle-based control system typically inter-communicate with each other and/or with sensors, actuators and the like across any type of serial and/or parallel data links. Nowadays, data processing components within a vehicle are commonly interlinked by a data communications network such as a controller area network (CAN), an example of which is described in ISO Standard 11898-1 (2003).
Because vehicles now process relatively large amounts of digital data during operation, it can be an engineering challenge to ensure that the data processed is accurate and reliable. As digital data is stored, processed, consumed and/or shared between or within the various data processing components of a vehicle, for example, bit errors and the like can occur due to environmental factors, hardware faults and other causes. As a result, various techniques have been developed to ensure the integrity of data processed within the vehicle. In a vehicle stability enhancement system, for example, the memory space associated with one or processors is typically checked during operation to ensure the absence of bit errors or other issues that could indicate the presence of unreliable data. Scanning the entire system memory, however, can be time consuming, particularly while the system is in operation. Additionally, while a scan of the entire system memory space can be very effective at identifying the presence of unreliable data, such checks are typically incapable of isolating the particular data that may be suspect. As a result, the entire system may be treated as suspect until the particular data at issue can be identified.
It is therefore desirable to formulate an error detection technique suitable for use in a vehicle traction control system that is capable of rapidly identifying errors within a particular data processing module or sub-module. Moreover, it is desirable to create a technique that assists in isolating suspect data. Furthermore, other desirable features and characteristics will become apparent from the subsequent detailed description and the appended claims, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings and the foregoing technical field and background.